What I’m thinking today

When I see them on the street my heart lifts, I want to catch their eye, say hello, wish them well that day and leave them with good feelings about someone else. When my father visits the West, he will point and say “Hey, look! A Mukiga!” (we are bakiga, the name of our tribe), but it is his way of saying, “Hey, look! Kin!” echoing my sentiments, and those of many other brown people.

The enmity and conflict between the different African groups is superficial and only good for a news story, as can be witnessed in any African Students’ Association in any campus around the World. We love each other, we love our brothers and sisters from the Islands, we love our brothers and sisters from the mainland. Any animosity perceived between ourselves or in our communities is completely contrived and perpetuated by those who gain economically from the divide. After all, there was never any ammunition manufacturer who was black, was there?

I have a Zimbabwean sister, Somali sister, Liberian sister, African-American sister, Trini sister… I could go on, but I know you get the picture. Black on black hate, black on black crime does not come in my size!